American Public Schools; History and Pedagogics (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1900. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER II EARLY AMERICAN SCHOOLS The seven years' war for independence was a trying time for the people of the new republic or confederation. Boston, New York, and Philadelphia were successively occupied by British armies. Commerce was interrupted or suspended, taxation was high, and " hard times " everywhere prevailed. From the close of the Revolutionary, War to the ratification of the Constitution and the inauguration of Washington, there was also a seven years' period of political unrest, of scarcity of coin and superabundance of depreciated paper money, of high taxation, of general poverty and dissatisfaction. A general census taken in 1790, one year after the final ratification of the Constitution by nine states, showed the population of the United States to be 3,929,000. At this time Virginia had 747,000 inhabitants, or about one-fifth of the entire population of the whole country. Massachusetts, including the Province of Maine, had, in round numbers, a population of 475,000; Pennsylvania, 434,000; North Carolina, 394,000; New York, 340,000; Maryland, 320,000; South Carolina, 240,000; Connecticut, 238,000; New Jersey, 184,000; New Hampshire, 142,000; Rhode Island, 69,000; Georgia, 82,000; Delaware, 59,000; Kentucky (soon after admitted) 74,000; and Vermont, 85,000. The New England States together had a population of a little more than one million; the four Middle States had a little less than a million; and the Southern States footed up 1,657,000 inhabitants, including negro slaves as "persons." In 1786, four years before this first general census, the population of the three great commercial cities of the country ranked as follows: Philadelphia, 32,205; New York, 24,500; Boston, 14,640. At the beginning of the Revolution the population of the...